Visiting Ypres & the WW1 Graves | Educating all 3 generations about the sacrifices of so many…
Having visited Ypres with the fantastic Salient Tours in April, we were always going to return to Ypres… but this time with grandparents accompanying both girls. It was their first visit to the powerful reminders of the sacrifices of so many people during the Great War. A very moving day as we toured the Menin Gate, Tyne Cot Cemetery and In Flanders Field Museum..
The sheer weight of numbers is truly breath taking and it follows brilliantly with the girls homeschooling topics that we’ve studied recently. But for the older ‘LifeinourVan’ generation… it was a day of quiet reflection and the odd moment of a tear forming in the corner of the eye…
With hindsight it’s hard not to see the futility of war now…. Yet for each of these men, it was clearly the ultimate sacrifice for their country and something they would not have done lightly and that’s certainly made a lasting impression on all 3 generations (especially the girls)
The centrepiece of Ypres could well be the hugely impressive cloth hall (Lakehalle) which houses the ‘In Flanders Field’ museum yet for us… it was the walk around the Menin Gate with it’s Last Post performed nightly (8pm) that should not be missed.. But for those with families, the In Flanders Field museum gives a very personal account of the war with some brilliant audio-visual displays that are brilliant for children.
Our trip around Europe has had some amazing highlights… yet for us, this part of the Salient… the scene of perhaps the bitterest of all the Great War battles (Battle of Passchendaele) will always be etched in our memories… and thankfully now we’ve passed this onto our parents so they will hopefully pass it onto their friends…
It truly is a ‘must see‘ part of European history and one we feel grateful about visiting & learning rather than just hearing about in a classroom…
For those looking for more like this to inspire their children’s history learning, we can recommend first hand experiences at:
- Juno Beach (D-Day Landings in WW2) in Northern France
- Somme Battlefields Tour in Northern France
- Eden Camp (Prisoner of War Camp) in Yorkshire
- Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, Germany
- Balkan Conflict History tour in Dubrovnik, Croatia
Ypres
so where did we park the bus for the night?
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